The increase in molecular orientational fluctuations as a phase transition is approached is an interesting and dramatic phenomenon, but associated undergraduate experiments are rare. We present an advanced undergraduate experiment on light scattering from the molecular orientational fluctuations in liquid crystals. In the high-temperature, disordered phase of a liquid crystal, small clusters of parallel-oriented molecules form spontaneously and scatter light. The size of the fluctuations and the consequent light scattering increase dramatically as the temperature is reduced approaching the weakly first-order phase transition to the ordered liquid crystal phase. We discuss a simplified theory that captures the essential physics.